As a 15-year-old freshman at Woodrow Wilson Junior High, Johnson Bailes won the 100-yard dash at a national meet in Maryland. She dominated the 100- and 220-yard dashes during her sophomore and junior seasons at Churchill, sweeping those events during the formative years of the Oregon state high school girls championships.

"When I started winning, Wendy started putting stuff in my head about the Olympics," Johnson Bailes said. "She told me I ran like Wilma Rudolph, and she would show me pictures and movies of her running. ... I was kind of lazy, and when I didn�t feel like doing my workouts, she would remind me of that potential."

Although women�s track and field was still treated as a novelty by the national press, Johnson Bailes created a stir when she tied the world record and beat Tyus at the national championships in the summer of 1968.

Once Johnson Bailes secured a spot on the U.S. women�s Olympic team, Jerome thought her young prodigy would get the respect she deserved.

But that didn�t happen.

Six members of the Oregon men�s track and field team also earned Olympic berths that summer. Among them were North Eugene�s Kenny Moore in the marathon, Wade Bell in the 800, and Harry Jerome in the 100.

According to Wendy Jerome, the UO athletes were given a proper send-off by the city and university, with donations of money, gifts and recognition.

"Margaret got nothing," she said. "She got what she got through true grit. There were no free shoes for her."

The Mexico City Olympics were staged in mid-October.

The streets were filled with political turmoil and unrest. Armed guards were posted at the entrance to the Olympic Village. Athletes were told not to venture downtown alone. There was heated talk about the rising Black Power movement and whether or not any of the U.S. men would boycott the medal ceremonies.

The enduring images of those Games are the raised, one-armed salutes and bowed heads of U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the victory stand; the impossible world-record leap of Bob Beamon in the long jump; and Oregon State�s Dick Fosbury striking gold in the high jump with the revolutionary "Fosbury Flop."

There is scant mention of the U.S. women�s team.

"Is that unusual? Tell me something new," said Barbara Ferrell-Edmonson, who ran the opening leg on the 4x100 relay, and was a silver medalist in the 100 meters behind Tyus, who became the first woman to defend her Olympic title in the 100.

"The women had things planned, but once Tommie and John did their thing, it was over, whether or not we had anything to say."

Johnson Bailes was oblivious to the drama.

"I didn�t understand why people made such a big deal out of what Smith and Carlos did," she said. "I was very sheltered (in Eugene) and I had no frame of reference. I didn�t understand until years later."

A bittersweet Olympics

Johnson Bailes also was dealing with a crisis in confidence.

On the flight from Denver to Mexico City, she became very ill with a high fever, and it wasn�t until she visited the infirmary in the Olympic Village that she was officially diagnosed with pneumonia.

There were still two weeks left before the Games began, but Johnson Bailes began to lose weight on a diet of chicken broth and ice cream, and once she was cleared to start workouts, she found she couldn�t get out of the blocks.

"I was crying and all upset," she said. "The coaches wrote me off because I was sick."

At that point, Wendy Jerome said she "borrowed" a pass from another athlete and sneaked inside the Olympic Village, where she calmed Johnson Bailes and focused her on the task at hand.

Jerome also advised the U.S. coaches to allow Johnson Bailes to run the anchor leg on the relay, because she had no prior experience with hand-offs, a fact borne out in practice each day when she kept plowing into Ferrell-Edmonson on the second exchange.

"Margaret was the baby, but she was a big baby," Ferrell-Edmonson said. "She kept running me over in practice and I wasn�t happy with that. I�d be eating dirt, and it was like, �O.K., how did I get in this spot?�e_SEnS"

By the day of the race, Ferrell-Edmonson had been switched to the lead-off leg, followed by Johnson Bailes, Mildrette Netter and Tyus.

"As I got up on her, she froze, and I started hollering to get her to move," Ferrell-Edmonson said. "Once we got her rolling, she was like a locomotive, and she more than made up for it. We set a record, but I think we could have run faster."

Said Wendy Jerome: "I told them to put her where she could do the least amount of damage, and that wasn�t it. I was laughing until I was sick on that one. Nobody really understood how fast this girl was."

Recognition, at last

After several years in Oakland, Johnson Bailes returned to Eugene in the summer of 1981.

She and her husband were divorced, and she wanted to give her daughter, Felicia, a chance at a better education. Felicia Bailes attended Jefferson Middle School and graduated from Churchill High in 1987.

Felicia Bailes didn�t know much about her mother�s athletic prowess until she saw all of her trophies proudly displayed inside the Lancer gymnasium.

"My mom is one of those humble people when it comes to that part of her life," Felicia Bailes said. "To me, it wasn�t a big deal until I was up in Eugene, and people at Churchill started to realize who my mother was. There were all these trophies, and the school Hall of Fame, and they all expected me to be like her.

"Unfortunately, I didn�t get that gene."

Felicia Bailes spent the majority of those years living with her grandmother, because her mother, who helped coach the Churchill track team in 1982 and �83, moved back to the Bay Area for a better job.

Becoming pregnant with Felicia had opened a new door in Johnson Bailes� life, but closed her athletic career.

Recalled Jerome: "When she told me she was pregnant, at that point in time, I don�t think she was old enough to understand what she had just lost. At that age, you don�t have that perspective.

"It�s a tragedy that she didn�t run (in Munich) when she was 21. If she had continued to train and compete, I don�t think anyone in the world would have touched her. To me, that�s the saddest part of her story."

Copyright � 2007 � The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA

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